Beckett Versus the Heat
by bamsaidthelady
Summary: Beckett attempts to tackle the heat and fails, miserably. Castle has to deal with the consequences with a little help from Lanie.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I wish.

**Chapter 1**

The annoyingly cheery weatherman with his slicked, perfectly combed blonde hair and gleaming smile proudly announced the fueling of the heat wave currently sweeping through the city at temperatures of nearly one hundred degrees. Sitting back with the air conditioning billowing through her hair as she sipped from a cup of iced coffee, Detective Kate Beckett took a moment to silently thank the homicidal psychos of New York for restraining themselves in the unbearable heat. With no new cases, she was free to begin the enormous stack of paperwork she had been putting off for weeks, and it was the perfect time to be indoors working in the haven of the chilly precinct rather than the sweltering heat outside. She smiled triumphantly and put her pen to the first page.

"Yo, Beckett!" Esposito called from the elevator with Ryan trailing behind him. "We got a possible homicide on the streets. Meet you there."

Beckett glared at the weatherman, who was currently predicting cooler temperatures drifting through the Texas panhandle. She groaned and let her forehand slam down on her desk. She hated the heat.

"Want some?" Castle held out his chocolate ice cream cone invitingly for Beckett, wafting the delicious aroma toward the driver's side of the car. "You've been staring at it for the past five minutes."

"Probably because I want to smash that dripping mess into your pretty boy face."

"Hey!" Castle quickly withdrew his treat closer to his body, cradling it protectively. "You're just angry because your coffee died."

Beckett stared at what was left of her coffee. The water droplets on the outside of the cup created a tiny pool in her cup holder, and the ice inside, long-melted, made the once refreshing iced coffee a watery, disgusting mess. She couldn't believe her luck. Here she was, on the hottest day of New York's record-breaking heat wave, in an unreliable car on her way to an outdoor crime scene, stuck in the middle of a massive traffic jam… with Castle in tow.

The air conditioning unit spluttered and stopped spitting out gusts of refreshing air, and Beckett nearly lost it. She pounded on the malfunctioning unit as she muttered curses and inventive threats as Castle sat back with his ice cream cone, taking long slurping licks and thoroughly enjoying the show. "You know, generally speaking of course, when you bang on a broken object it usually makes it worse." As Beckett swiveled her fist to aim pointedly at Castle's nose, he quickly backtracked. "Then again, it's your department-issued piece of crap so I'll just let you handle those minor details."

Nearly an hour later, Beckett and Castle pulled up to the crime scene. Beckett unfolded herself out of the driver's seat, grimacing as the fabric of her stuffy pantsuit clung to her skin in patches all along her body. She plucked miserably at the sections of her clothes where sweat spots were already beginning to form and wished she made a better wardrobe decision that morning. Brushing the hair out of her face that had started clinging to the sweat gathering there, she hoped desperately for a reprieve from the suppressive heat.

"What took you so long, Beckett?" Esposito called from Lanie's side, where she was crouched over a body sprawled out in the middle of the street. "We've been waiting on you and Castle for over an hour."

"Traffic jam." Beckett replied shortly, ducking under the yellow crime scene tape.

"You're the one with the guy who has the mayor's cell phone number. Should have gotten a chopper to fly you over."

"Yeah well next time I'll stick you in a car with Castle in this heat without air conditioning, see what kind of homicidal tendencies spring out of you." Beckett stepped forward to the body, bending down next to Lanie. "The sooner we get everything finished out here, the sooner we can take the investigation back inside. What do we have?"

"What we have is a dead body." Lanie motioned at the lump in front of her. "A little hard to tell, given the condition of what's left of it and the state of deterioration, but the smell should give it away. As you can see—"

Castle interrupted with a little girl squeal, "Oh My God! She's melting!"

Lanie frowned, annoyed at how easily Castle stole her thunder. "Unfortunately, writer boy's right. In this heat, the body's fat has started to decay more quickly than under normal circumstances, and the body is beginning to lose its original form. I would estimate female, aged thirty-five to forty, but there's no ID on her. Looks like we have a couple stab wounds in the lower abdomen which could be cause of death, but if you want something exact on that and time of death, we are going to have to wait until we get her back up to the morgue."

Beckett rose to survey the scene and found herself getting dizzy as a wave of nausea hit her. Castle caught her arm as she swayed momentarily. "You okay?" He asked with concern.

Beckett squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the feeling to pass. "Yeah." She answered when she felt mostly level-headed again. "I stood up too fast."

"Esposito, Ryan." The two detectives snapped to attention. "CSU's been through this side of the street, correct? Anything on an ID?" They shook their heads. "Get a unit out to check dumpsters in the area. There's no purse on her so it may have been a robbery. The killer could have dumped anything unnecessary somewhere nearby."

Her head swam and she struggled to keep her focus as she started to walk the crime scene, memorizing each little detail to build up a mental picture of the murder. Castle followed in her wake, blabbering incessantly, but she couldn't concentrate. She wiped beads of sweat from her forehead, but the droplets seemed to keep raining down. Her cheeks were flushed, and she felt the heat of the sun beating down on her back, her hair, her arms…

_Come on._ She shook herself. _Pay attention. Someone's been murdered. Keep your cool. _She paced next to the body. "No sign of a weapon around here." She turned to survey the scene. "No pools of blood or drops or splatter either."

"Which means the body was moved and this isn't the scene of the crime, just the dumping ground." Castle finished for her.

"Yes." _Don't think about the heat. Think about the lovely air conditioning waiting for you at the precinct. Think about the Starbucks frappuccino you can bully Castle into buying for you on the way back._

"Whoever dumped the body must have known it wouldn't be found for awhile." Castle looked around past the crime scene tape. "Normally we have a lot of curious onlookers trying to catch a glimpse of the body. There's barely any today."

"It's hot. Nobody's dumb enough to stand under the heat this long just to look at a body."

"Except us."

"Except us," Beckett echoed. "But you're right. This street doesn't get much traffic."

_You hate losing control. If you let the sweat dripping down your body, the dizziness, the spots spinning in your vision get to you, the heat will win. You will collapse. And you will lose control._

"So our guy's probably not the attention-seeking type, or we would be on Broadway right now." Castle brooded, staring at the buildings around them, the street vendors, and the various shops and restaurants littering the area.

"Mmm." Beckett made a vague noise of assent. In the next instant, she felt the first warning signs of nausea threatening to explode up her throat. She stopped walking and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths.

Castle kept walking, still muttering to himself, but hurried back to Beckett's side when he realized she was no longer in step with him.

"Beckett." He touched her shoulder. "Seriously, are you okay?" He looked at her face, now a sickly, pasty white. "Beckett." She didn't respond, still trying to concentrate on breathing in and breathing out and not emptying her stomach on her shoes. "Kate." Beckett's eyes fluttered and her nostrils flared. "You look really pale. Don't try to be Superwoman right now; tell me if you don't feel well."

_Come on, Kate. The feeling's going to go away soon. You'll be fine. Just tell Castle you're okay, open your eyes, walk, comment on the crime scene, and sound vaguely intelligent._

"I'm fine, Castle." She shook off his steadying hand, took a deep breath and opened her eyes. "Just got a little woozy for a second. Let's keep going."

She took a step forward, and immediately regretted it when she started seeing large spots of bright white light clouding her vision. She blinked hurriedly to try and clear them away.

_Stay strong. Don't be weak._

She tried another step and winced as she felt the ground rushing up toward her, distantly hearing Castle call her name frantically.

_Stay standing. Don't fall…_

Thunk.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I wish.

**Chapter 2**

Castle reacted instinctively when he saw Beckett's knees buckle. He took two quick steps forward and made it to her side in time to catch her shoulders and keep her head from suffering a nasty collision with the ground. And then he nearly dropped her body again. "This is definitely not as easy as they make it look in the movies." He struggled to hold her steady with one arm, and then it hit him. She wasn't conscious.

Castle panicked. He stared at Beckett's limp, motionless body in his arms and started lightly slapping her cheeks, frantically calling out her name. "Beckett! Beckett!" She didn't respond. "Kate! Kate!" Castle finally noticed the sickly pallor her skin had taken the tone of, and looked around for assistance. But everyone seemed to be so focused on their respective tasks in the crime scene that no one had noticed Beckett's collapse.

"Lanie!" He bellowed at the nearest person.

"Not now, Castle. Gotta make sure our vic is nice and comfy in the murder mobile." Lanie called back as she supervised the loading of the body.

"Beckett just collapsed!"

"What?" Lanie hurried over to check on her friend.

"She just swayed and fell. Is she going to be okay? What can I do? Tell me what happened!" Castle fired off, very close to the point of hysteria. Lanie ignored him as she quickly examined Beckett's body for anything life threatening.

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Mild heat exhaustion."

"Is that bad? Will she be okay? What do we do?"

"Castle." Lanie looked him dead in the eye. "She'll be fine. Let's get her out of the sun first."

"Are you sure? Look at her! She's deathly pale and she's still unconscious!"

Lanie put a hand on his shoulder. "Castle. Calm down. Put Beckett down in an air-conditioned car before you hurt yourself. Beckett can handle a little heat exhaustion. Now breathe a little. I don't want you having a panic attack and collapsing next to her."

Castle blinked stupidly, his brain still trying to process the chain of events. "Beckett's car doesn't have any air. Unit's broken. Damn cop car. Where am I going to find cool air for her. We're at a crime scene!"

Lanie waved her hand at three patrol cars surrounding the yellow tape. "Plenty of cars with air conditioning and shade at a murder investigation. Choose one of them."

Castle hobbled over to the nearest car, and with Lanie's help he half-dragged Beckett inside. "She's going to be okay?" Castle questioned with doubt in his eyes as he settled Beckett's head and shoulders onto the back seat of the car. "I mean you're a doctor, technically, because of the Dr. Lanie Parish in your title, but really, you do your work on a slab in the morgue, not an operating table."

Lanie seemed to grow a head taller as she glared down at Castle with her hands on her hips. She was about to tear into him but had some restraint as she reminded herself that he was stressed out by Beckett's fainting. "I may work with dead bodies all day, but I do know a thing or two about the living. And honey, Beckett's got herself a nasty case of heat exhaustion."

"Heat exhaustion." Castle repeated to himself. "Water. Water! She needs water!" He took off toward a street vendor, leaving Lanie with Beckett's still-unconscious body.

"Girl." Lanie brushed away some hair that had fallen onto Beckett's forehead. "That man has got it bad for you. He won't admit it. And you won't admit it. But I sure as hell can't miss it."

Castle slapped five dollars on the counter of a street vendor's cart in exchange for five bottles of icy cold water that he clutched to his chest as he took off running back to Beckett's side.

She was still unconscious when he returned, and Castle took the opportunity to lay into Lanie. "Why didn't you tell me to get water? Basic medical information: get the patient suffering from heat stroke some water."

"Castle. Before I slap you, I want to make it perfectly clear." Lanie spoke in her no-nonsense voice. "Beckett is still unconscious. She can't drink water until she wakes up. I didn't see any point in having you running off in a tizzy and working yourself up into a stressed-induced collapse as well. I need you to sit tight and not go-"

Castle ran off again, clearly not having listened to a word of Lanie's lecture. "Towel! I need a towel, now!" He raced off in search of one.

When he got back, empty-handed, Beckett was groggily waking up and Lanie was gently explaining what happened. Out of breath and panting noisily, Castle grabbed a bottle of water and shoved it in Beckett's face. "Drink," he commanded, and then made the mistake of looking down from her face when she didn't take the offered water. "Whoah! Lanie, you didn't mention anything about the possibility of stripping."

"Castle!" Lanie's eyes flashed and he quickly shielded his eyes and turned away. "Did you see what she was wearing? I'm taking her blazer off. Crazy woman that she is, Beckett put on two layers this morning."

Lanie took the bottle of water from Castle's hands and steered him around. "You can look now, Castle. And you, Katherine Beckett, you need to get some fluids into your system. Drink."

The color began to return to Beckett's cheeks as she sipped slowly from the bottle and closed her eyes, breathing slowly in and out.

"Props to the guy who caught you when you collapsed." Castle held out his hand for a fist bump. "Eh, eh? Definitely the movie star highlight of the day. Can't you just see me, Superman extraordinaire, sweeping the damsel in distress off her feet?"

"Castle." Beckett peered at his three-headed appearance through one cracked eye. "Thank you. Now go away. There are three of you. And I don't have the energy to deal with that many."

"Kate," Lanie began interrogating her patient. "Did you eat this morning?"

Beckett's gaze shifted away. "I had a cup of coffee."

"Any real food?"

"Not really. I wasn't hungry."

"Not an excuse. Doctor's orders for as long as we're stuck in this heat wave. Eat in the morning. Wear something light. Stay in the shade. Get your damn car fixed." Lanie's eyes bored into Beckett's until she relented and nodded.

"Yes ma'am." Beckett rolled her eyes.

Lanie pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows. "What are the odds that next time you collapse, I'm not there. Do you really want Castle stripping you down?"

Beckett cringed. "I said yes already! Do you really want to give me nightmares?"

"I'm going to get a uniform to drive you back to the precinct. You're confined to desk work only today. I'll have Esposito and Ryan babysit Castle." Lanie whipped out her cell phone and started walking away, leaving Castle alone with Beckett.

"Hey," Castle crouched down to Beckett's eye level. "You doing better now?"

"Yeah." Beckett took another sip of water. "Head's not spinning anymore and my vision's no longer in black and white."

"Yo Castle!" Esposito yelled from across the street. "Come on, man. We got places to be!"

Castle squeezed Beckett's shoulder reassuringly. "You're a strong woman, Kate. A little heat exhaustion won't stop you." He looked her straight in the eye. "But don't ever scare me like that again." He grinned, already reverting back to his typical teasing self. "I think I might just drop you next time."

**

* * *

**

A/N:

Sorry this is so late. Thanks for reading! 


End file.
